My First Time Doing Level Design

Back in July of 2022, I took a course to learn Unreal Engine 5 by the GameDev.Tv Team on Udemy. As I followed along with the course, I made multiple games of varying complexity. I got to design my own level by building a game called Crypt Raider. The course instructor walked me through how to program the features of the game, however they left the level design to me. They gave me several requirements for the level:

Use a certain set of assets (The Medieval Dungeon Assets Pack from Infuse Studios on the Unreal Engine Marketplace)
An open-air/Courtyard space for the level start
A Dungeon/Jail like space right after
A door that only opens when an object is placed inside to reveal the crypt in the Dungeon
Some kind of end goal
End goal is connected to a door/gate that closes when an object (the end goal) is removed.

Beyond that, it was up to me and the knowledge they gave me on Level Design.

Steps in Designing the Crypt

To begin, I sketched out a basic plan for how I would build the level. The GameDev.Tv team gave me the following general plan for doing level Design:

Look at how big all the floor, wall pieces, and other interesting assets are.
Draw it out on graph paper or similar.
Build it!

Since I was using pre-made assets from the Unreal Engine Marketplace, I first looked at the example level from the Asset Pack. After getting an idea of how big the different assets are, I then sketched out my idea. This is what I sketched out.

Hand Drawn Sketch of the level done on graph paper. Each square is 1 meter.

Next I began the tedious process of laying out each floor. I began by laying out the floor tiles, then the walls, and finally the ceilings. Once the floors, walls, and ceilings were in place, I went through and added lights. Later I added various props in different corners and changed out a couple wall meshes with different wall meshes, finishing off the level.

The Design of the Crypt

With the level being up to me to design, I wanted the following items to be featured in the level:

Multiple turns and bends
Different paths for the player to follow
Alcoves to hide extra stuff
Dead Ends
Multiple possible goal points with only one correct one

To show these features off, I’ll walk you through the level. The Player starts in a courtyard, with a door standing ajar in front of them, almost beckoning them to walk through it.

Entrance to the Level shown. Player is standing in the Courtyard looking into the Dungeon.

As the Player passes through the door, they move into a somewhat well-lit Dungeon.

Inside the well lit dungeon. Various cells can be seen with plenty of light.

In one corner, a statue has a light on it, beckoning the player over. The Player can pick up the statue and place it into a wall, opening a doorway that was not visible before. The player can also explore this dungeon and find skeletons hidden in the corners.

A Statue in the corner with a small light on it. Less obvious is the skeleton in the lower right hand corner pointing towards the Statue.

The entrance to the crypt is through this wall. By placing the statue in the wall, the wall will lower to reveal the crypt.

And here is the Crypt, with the entrance open.

Passing through the now opened doorway, the Player descends into the crypt down a flight of stairs. At the bottom, the dungeon becomes the crypt as the walls and ceilings close in and the light darkens somewhat. The Player is given the choice of going either left or right at the bottom.

Looking down into the crypt from the top of the staircase.

Through the doorway shown in the previous image, looking to the right.

Going to the right leads down a path into the first mausoleum.

The Mausoleum the Player might encounter if they turned right.

Going to the left leads the Player down a hall to where they can either turn left to go down another flight of stairs, deeper into the crypt, or right into another mausoleum.

This is what the Player will encounter when turning left. From here, the Player can turn right into another Mausoleum, or turn left and move down to the next floor of the crypt.

The Player can enter the mausoleum and see a door at the end that leads to a vertical fall.

This is the next Mausoleum. At the end are doors standing ajar. Past the doors is a vertical fall down to the next floor.

And here is the vertical fall looking down. The columns and table provide a simple, yet challenging, means of climbing back up.

The Player can also take the stairs down to the next level of the crypt. As the Player descends, the next floor of the crypt gets even darker.

Looking down the hall of the final floor of the crypt. It is noticeably darker than the previous floor.

The Player can continue and find the final mausoleum or go around to where the vertical fall is. As the player walks around to the vertical fall, they pass an alcove hidden in the dark.

Here is looking towards the vertical fall. In the dark to the left there is an entrance to a hidden alcove.

And this is what the alcove looks like on the inside. The player would only notice the alcove if they were to walk past it.

And this is the vertical fall, looking up.

The final mausoleum has a little statue the player can pick up and carry away. But the statue is connected to a gate. So when it gets picked up, the gate closes. The Player must find a suitable item to replace the statue if they want to carry it out of the crypt. Luckily for the Player, multiple such items are placed outside the final mausoleum.

This is the final Mausoleum. The statue with a light on it is the end goal.

And here is looking towards the entrance of the mausoleum. A gate can be seen over the entrance.

When the statue is removed, the gate closes. A suitable object must be used to replace it and hold open the gate.

The Player luckily has multiple such objects sitting right outside the Mausoleum. The collection of skulls or the vase hiding in the corner can all be used to replace the statue.

How It Can be Improved

While I am happy with the level I built, it has room for improvement. The first way I could improve it is to add more floors to the crypt and make the level larger. With the level as it is, the Player can very quickly move through the level.

Something I played with and decided not to do was to have paths that are one-way. If I was to improve on this level, I would add paths that the player could not return to. This would make for a more interesting play through for the player. For example, instead of having the gate able to reopen in the Final Mausoleum, the gate permanently closes and the player has to find another way out.

I also want to add more challenges for the player to overcome. While there are a couple challenges for the player to overcome in the level, it is still an easy walk through. More challenges such as having a pressure plate trap that causes the player to fall down a couple floors would make for far more interesting gameplay.

My final improvement would be the lighting. For a crypt, it is rather well lit. To improve it, I would first make the torches darker and warmer. To keep the crypt from being too dark, I would add either spot or rectangular lights on the walls of the crypt, with a somewhat dark and cooler color light. This would make the crypt start to feel more like a crypt.

Final Thoughts

Back in July, this was my first time making my own video game. Even though I followed a course to write the code, I learned a lot about Level Design, Lighting, and Unreal Blueprints. After doing this, it made me excited to build my own levels in my game. I have learned a lot just from building this level, and now writing this post looking back on it.

Assets used in the game come from the Medieval Dungeon Assets Pack from Infuse Studios on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Link to Asset Pack.